In this project ‘Youth in action for a creative and sustainable gastronomy’ five designated gastronomy cities from the UNESCO Creative City Network come together to respond to ‘A new skills agenda for Europe’, the resolution on the European gastronomic heritage: cultural and education aspects (2013/2181(INI)), the Milan Urban Food policy pact and the UNESCO Creative City Network Mission statement and local and regional calls for increased recruitment and improved skills in VET related to the food value chain. The public interest for gastronomy has increased over the last years and has become increasingly present in the daily discourse in form of chef competitions on TV, sharing of food pictures in social media, food blogs and foodie communities. Despite this growing interest, reports show that 90% of the restaurants in Bergen struggle to find qualified staff. National reports document decrease in applications to food related VET education and increase in the number of drop out from the same studies. Europe face several challenges regarding skills development, employability and skills matching, also in the gastronomy sector. According to ‘A new skills agenda for Europe’ skills gaps and mismatch is severe, and 40% of European employers report having difficulties finding people with the skills they need to grow and innovate. Agricultural production and local food artisans are a requirement for a successful creative gastronomic sector. Low recruitment to producing part of the food value chain is a common challenge for Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. Statista.com states a youth unemployment rate in Spain of 42.9 % in 2016 and 40.1% in Italy in 2016. However, increasing public interest in gastronomy opens a possibility for increase in gastronomy related businesses. With an entrepreneurial mindset and the right skills, these possibilities may represent a contribution to address youth unemployment in Spain and Italy. Eighteen partners -connected to vocational training in the food value chain- join in efforts to increase the number of young people who makes VET in the food value chain as their first choice of education and to secure a match in skills demanded by industry and businesses. Aiming at local, regional, national, European and international target groups the project will apply a variety of methods and activities, such as mobilities, thematic transnational meetings, local workshops, surveys, evidence gathering and, studies of real-life cases in order to present tangible and entangle results. The results from the project will be presented in the form of reports, documentation of best practices, films and cook-along videos presented on a YouTube channel, booklet with QR-codes and blogs. The reports will for instance contain input for a new strategy for recruitment and experiences and examples which can be applied for recruitment purposes; insight in skills demanded and learning outcome in some of the VET related to the food value chain in the participant countries; suggestions for improved quality and relevance of the VET education towards the food value chain. The reports will contribute to national policy-makers suggestions for making skills and qualification more visible and comparable for educations in the food value chain. The results from the project will be communicated to local, regional, national, European and international stakeholders. All the cities participating in the project are members of the UNESCO network for creative cities as gastronomy cities. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) aims to strengthen cooperation with and among cities that have recognized creativity as a strategic factor of sustainable development as regards economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects. By joining the network, cities acknowledge their commitment to sharing best practices, developing partnerships that promote creativity and the cultural industries, strengthening participation in cultural life and integrating culture in urban development plans. The five UCCN of Gastronomy in this project have identified both similar and different challenges, and on this basis found the most relevant activities to make the impact of the sharing of Best Practices as valuable as possible. This Erasmus+ application is a direct result of the motivation to continue, consolidate and strengthen our collaboration and learn from each other.
The Youth4food project departed from a need Gaziantep, Dénia, Parma, Östersund and Bergen had to inform youth about the career opportunities in the food sector. The main objective of the project has been to identify ways to increase the number of young people who make Vocational Educational Training (VET) in the food value chain their first choice of education. The project had 18 partners and more than 102 people have travelled between the cities. 5 university trainees have been involved. There have been 5 transnational meetings on VET food related topics. The project has completed the planned activities, but the beauty of the projects lies in all the collaboration and plans that have been initiated during this project and that will carry on now the project is completed. In an exchange project you don’t know what kind of new skills, knowledge and contacts that will lead to something else. You can plan activities, but you can never plan the outcome and the positive things that is happens when people meet. Dissemination of results: booklet, report, videos, presentationsSeveral films have been produced, including a series called ‘You+ng heroes’. A booklet about young food creatives in the participating cities has been completed. The report “The future of Europe’s kitchens-recruitment and skills matching” is made. The project has a logo, webpage, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and is found on Instagram and Twitter. A part about Swedish Cuisine is included in the book “Cuisine Cultures in The World” by the Turkish lecturer and author Ceyhun UÇUK. Steps are taken to make the book a national textbook in curriculum for Gastronomy Education. The project has been communicated on several platforms, UNESCO Creative City Network, European, regional and local settings. The project was selected as a best practice for the 2030.LAB call promoted by UNESCO and was presented during the UCCN Annual Conference held in Krakow and Katowice in 2018. A publication regarding the 2030.LAB is distributed to the 180 Creative Cities. In October, 2019 the project was presented in UNESCO headquarter, Paris, on World cities day.Impact: Stronger bonds and collaboration beyond the formal project The project has contributed to stronger bonds locally within and between the participating cities. Participating schools have gained new contacts for international cooperation. They wish to continue their cooperation through exchange, work training and other Erasmus+ programs. Businesses are more aware of and ask for international opportunities. The participating universities have taken the first steps towards a joint master program within gastronomy. Impact: communication of results and influence on policy The challenge of recruiting young people to the food value chain is complex and is not solved in two years, however the project has made a significant contribution and paved the way for more cooperation. The recruitment issues are addressed at the national level in Norway. Results from the project have been communicated to the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and food, as input for an event addressing recruitment for food related VET the Ministry will have during the green week in Berlin in January 2020. Best practices on how to work with recruitment have been registered in the project. Some suggestions for recruitment strategies are: 1) communicate future possibilities after attending VET; 2) improve the information given in schools; 3) use the internet as a tool to inform and create excitement around cooking; 4) get chefs and VET students and teachers to visit lower secondary schools and5) communicate more of the positive sides of the profession, such as the social aspects.VET students and teachersThrough exchange visits students have learned the elements of a restaurant and different cooking techniques. They have learned that food is so much more than the kitchen. Food is culture, traditions, regional gastronomies, local territory and products. The students that visited Gaziantep learned that stereotypes of cities and people are not true. Students cooperated and communicated across cultures. Interaction and culture exchange can inspire to entrepreneurship and innovation. Students can bring with them this knowledge to their future professions. The exchanges have increased the students’ knowledge of the agriculture sector in the different countries. They have seen the importance of local production and local farmers, and increased their understanding of the connection between local production and local gastronomy. The students are familiarized sustainable goals, UNESCO, Erasmus and the different cities in the project. Through their travels and the experience of training in a different country the young people have had the joy of mastering a new situation, to understand their own potential and hence their self-confidence has grown. The young people felt like ambassadors for their UNESCO city. They felt part of something bigger.